Jump Start

We all likely have to wait a year before toting the starting lines we know, but perhaps we can take advantage of the virtual races being offered to hone our racing prowess. One area often overlooked for potential improvement by distance athletes is the value and specificity of an optimum warm up. Jumpers, throwers and sprinters, to name a few, are at least in practice familiar with post activation potentiation (PAP). Protocols vary, however a common purpose of PAP is performing a set of exercises prior to competition meant to elicit performance enhancement. Proposed explanatory mechanisms are beyond the scope of this introductory article, however there are likely both central and peripheral systems contributing to the observed gains. Many athletes and coaches are unaware of the degree to which contractile history may influence muscular force output and the rate of force development. Critical to the stimulus in question is specificity, that being exercises meant to directly emulate the subsequent competitive activity.

One can think of running as a series of alternating single leg jumps from one support to the other, hence exercises that involve triple extension have the potential to stimulate the musculature involved in running action. As an example, resisted (with a band or rock!) jump squats is one such exercise that can easily be performed road/trailside with little fanfare. After running your typical warm up prior to racing, simply add perhaps 2x 5 jump squats to prime your system for optimum performance.

Now may be an opportune time to ‘jump start’ your racing game!